117 West Spirits with Justin McCabe Show Notes
117 West Spirits: Beer Roots, West Coast Whiskey, and Building Flavor First in San Diego
San Diego doesn’t exactly need another brewery, and that realization is what set 117 West Spirits on its path. When I sat down with founder Justin McCabe, the story that unfolded wasn’t about chasing whiskey tradition so much as sidestepping it. If you’re starting a spirits company in one of the most saturated beer markets in the country, you need a reason to exist, and ideally a way to taste different.
The origin story starts where a lot of modern distilleries do, with beer. Justin was homebrewing while studying chemistry in the early 2000s, part of the wave that helped define San Diego as a craft beer powerhouse. By the time he and his friends started seriously talking about opening something around 2012, the market was already crowded beyond belief. Instead of joining it, he found a different angle. A book, Alt Whiskies by Derek Bell, reframed the idea entirely. If craft beer could push boundaries, whiskey could too. That shift, from brewing beer to distilling beer-inspired spirits, became the foundation of 117 West.
Like many California distilleries, 117 West exists in part because the rules changed. The introduction of the Type 74 license, allowing direct-to-consumer sales through a tasting room, didn’t just help, it made the business viable. Distribution alone wouldn’t sustain a small producer, not in a three-tier system that offers little support for craft distilleries. Even today, Justin is blunt about it: the tasting room isn’t a supplement, it’s the business. That reality shaped everything from location to strategy. Early on, the idea was to tap into San Diego’s beer tourism, catching the spillover from brewery traffic and offering something familiar but different. It worked for a time, but like many small distilleries, they hit a ceiling and eventually had to shift toward a more intentional, visibility-driven approach.
If there’s a throughline in everything 117 West produces, it’s that flavor comes first. Not category, not tradition, just flavor. Justin’s own preferences lean toward single malt whiskey, inspired by Scotch, Japanese, and Irish styles, but without trying to replicate them. Instead, 117 West leans into a distinctly West Coast interpretation built on malted barley, beer-inspired processes, and a willingness to experiment. That’s where their West Coast Whiskey starts to make sense.
Distilled from 100% malted barley, it immediately reads more like a brewer’s whiskey than a traditional distiller’s whiskey. On the nose, it’s unmistakable: dark stout, roasted malt, chocolate, with barely any oak or heat. It feels closer to a hazy stout than a rickhouse. On the palate, it shifts. Strawberry candy and citrus rind cut through the darker tones, creating a sweet-bitter balance that keeps it from becoming too heavy. There’s honeyed bread, marmalade, and a thread of coffee grounds and dark chocolate that builds without overwhelming. The mouthfeel leans slightly astringent, coating like a thick porter while still allowing the fruit to show. The finish brings back roasted espresso and toasted grain, with that lingering berry note keeping things just bright enough. It’s a whiskey that could have leaned too far into its brewing roots but instead finds a balance that feels deliberate. It surprised me.
That flavor-first mindset only works if the process supports it, and at 117 West, that starts with the Alexandria Still. It’s a unique piece of equipment that uses steam injection rather than direct heat, allowing for faster distillation without scorching and helping preserve delicate flavor compounds. It’s efficient, capable of running a full batch in just a few hours, but more importantly, it aligns with the goal of capturing as much character from the raw ingredients as possible. Paired with high-quality malt from suppliers like Admiral Maltings, the result is a spirit that feels more like an expression of grain than a transformation of it.
Maturation follows a similarly intentional path. Early on, the distillery leaned into smaller barrels, starting with 5-gallon casks, moving through 10 to 15 gallon formats, and eventually settling into 30-gallon barrels. Smaller barrels can easily overwhelm a spirit with oak, but here the wood stays in check. It provides structure without dominating, allowing the malt-driven profile to remain the focus.
Like most craft distilleries, whiskey wasn’t the first product out the door. 117 West started with white rum and gin to build cash flow while barrels aged. The rum takes a lighter, cachaça-inspired approach with citrus and baking spice notes rather than heavy funk, while the gin leans genever-style, rooted in malt with West Coast botanicals layered in. These aren’t side projects so much as part of the foundation that allows the whiskey to exist.
For much of its life, 117 West has remained relatively under the radar, focused on local sales and building a loyal base rather than chasing wide distribution. That was partly intentional and partly a function of the market. Now, with more mature inventory and a clearer identity, there’s a shift underway. The push toward broader awareness feels less like a beginning and more like a next phase.
117 West isn’t trying to be bourbon or Scotch, and it isn’t trying to define California whiskey in a sweeping way. It’s carving out its own lane, where brewing sensibilities meet distilling technique and malt takes center stage. Sometimes that leads to unexpected results. Sometimes it leads to something that works. And when it does, it’s a reminder that whiskey doesn’t need to follow a script to be worth drinking.
117 West Spirits
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117 West Spirits West Coast Whiskey: Specs
Original picture credit: 117 West Spirits
Classification: California Whiskey made from 100% Malted Barley
Producer: 117 West Spirits
Mash Bill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 92º (46% ABV)
Age: 8 Years
Location: California
117 West Spirits West Coast Whiskey Price: $65
117 West Spirits West Coast Whiskey: Tasting Notes
Eye: Burnt orange. Medium rims, quick globule legs, and long droplets.
Nose: Dark, slightly bitter stout, clear as day that there’s a chocolate and malted barley, barely any oak or proof, all roasted and toasted. Feels like the stout would be hazy. Candied ginger in dark chocolate, strawberry opening with air.
Palate: Strawberry jellied candies, grapefruit piths and rinds for a delightful sweet-bitter dance. Malt and then darker tones are noticeably throttled down, allowing for more complexity rather than overwhelming with toasted-to-burnt flavors. Honey wheat bread with marmalade. Dark chocolate emerges alongside old coffee grounds. Mouthfeel is mildly astringent, feeling after sipping a thick stout or porter. Coating, thins a bit on the chew but adds more chocolate.
Finish: Bitter flash of dark roast espresso, the roasted malt reasserting over a still-there berry jam on toasted bread. Coating, medium length, bitterness is unusual and welcome.
Overall: This really surprised me. The flavors are as advertised, plus the lovely strawberry jam and citrus rind brighten and freshen. I was worried the smaller casks would add too much oak, but instead it’s barely there as a backbone, letting the flavors shine.
Final Rating: 8.0
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